The Italian Feast Angela Hartnett Would Have As Her Last Meal
British chef Angela Hartnett knows her way around a meal. She's worked under the exacting Gordon Ramsay, opened her own restaurants to great renown, and even earned a Michelin star.
“We would have antipasti with Fellini salami, Parma ham, and some coppa, followed by roast meats like anolini stuffed with braised veal or lamb,”
So it's no surprise that Melanie Dunea asked Hartnett about her hypothetical final meal for My Last Supper, an interview project that's also been turned into a book, the chef opted for an all-out Italian feast. "We would have antipasti with Fellini salami, Parma ham, and some coppa, followed by roast meats like anolini stuffed with braised veal or lamb," she describes. Following the traditional multi-course structure of an Italian meal, Hartnett starts with dry-aged salumi that are easy to eat while catching up with friends and family. For her next course, anolini is an Italian pasta that's either stuffed with meat or served in a hearty broth.
But the food doesn't stop there (this is her last meal, after all). "Then we would have two kinds of pasta," Hartnett says. "One would be made with white truffles and the other would be a pumpkin tortelli." White truffles are wild, rare, and wildly expensive with a rich, woodsy taste. As the price for a pound can rocket into the thousands, white truffles are the perfect finishing touch for a fabulous last meal. Tortelli is a stuffed pasta shape that has a little more un-stuffed surface area than the familiar, often colorful, store-bought tortellini, so there's plenty of the pasta's toothsome bite to accompany the savory pumpkin filling.
The finishing touches for Angela Hartnett's final supper
When Angela Hartnett envisions her final meal, she pictures eating in her grandmother's picturesque garden in the Italian hills, surrounded by her friends, family, and perhaps even Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld for some tableside entertainment. But her idyllic Italian vision wouldn't be complete without the dolce course. "For dessert we would have the zabaglione my grandmother used to make," she says. While zabaglione sounds complicated to prepare and is, in fact, a test of technique, the ingredient list is simple: eggs yolks, sugar, salt, lemon juice, and a sweet, fortified wine. The result is a warm, alcohol-infused custard that is the perfect finishing touch for an Italian feast.
A last supper in the Italian hills calls for wine and lots of it. Hartnett requests good wine without specifying the origin, though a Barolo or nebbiolo would suit the scene. For a final touch of elegance, Hartnett deviates from Italy to France with a request for Krug Champagne. This prestigious champagne can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars, so it's ideal for a meal where the bill won't come due.
